Weight of water and concern over Gallipoli reminder

Probably changed history the AE2 at Garden Island in 1914.
It now lies on the seabed near Turkey.Photo: Royal Australian Navy Collection

September 15, 2007

The AE2 submarine played a pivotal role in the campaign, writes
Fred Brenchley in Karabiga, Turkey.

THE shores around Turkey - a crossroads of early civilisations -
are littered with shipwrecks dating back to 14BC. The Australian
submarine AE2, scuttled in 1915, is a relative newcomer.

When a big archaeological survey of AE2 began this week from
Karabiga, the launch group in the little Turkish fishing village on
the Sea of Marmara included personnel from the Turkish Navy,
customs, and the key Turkish Institute of Nautical Archaeology.

CNN Turkey headlined the success of the latest Australian diving
survey when three days later it manoeuvred a drop camera through
the partially opened hatch, down into the control room so the
interior of AE2 could be seen for the first time since Commander
Dacre Stoker and his crew scuttled it in 1915, five days after the
Gallipoli landing.

The submarine might not have the archaeological status of
Greco-Roman finds, but it has become the new touchstone of the
modern relationship between Turkey and Australia, which has
Gallipoli at the core.

Gallipoli creates sensitivities on both sides, as the furore in
Australia about recent road works near Anzac Cove demonstrated. The
submarine presents a different problem: should it be left 73 metres
down on the floor of the Sea of Marama as a "living natural
museum", or raised, restored and put on display so future
generations can appreciate its significance in Gallipoli's shaping
of Australia's national identity.

On April 24 - the eve of the landings - Stoker accepted what was
virtually a suicide mission to penetrate the heavily mined narrows
of the Dardanelles Strait behind Gallipoli and to attack Turkish
warships in the strait and create a diversion from the
landings.

Stoker and AE2 succeeded in breaching the mined narrows where
other Allied subs had failed, hitting a Turkish warship on the
way.

Stoker's message back to headquarters that he had succeeded in
cracking the narrows into the Marmara arrived on the night of April
25, just as General Sir Ian Hamilton had received an appeal for the
Australians, pinned down on the beach, to be evacuated.

After reading the submarine's message, Hamilton ordered the
troops to stay. While Hamilton's aides described the message as an
"omen", historians still debate the role of the AE2 in keeping the
troops on Gallipoli for eight months. Contemporary debate, however,
centres on what to do with the slowly crumbling AE2. If left where
it is, it will disintegrate, washed away by currents, anchors and
fishermen's nets.

The AE2 Commemorative Foundation's drop camera dive has revealed
a deterioration in the sub's condition since it was discovered by
the Turkish explorer Selcuk Kolay in 1998.

Crucial to the future of the submarine is the state of the hull,
and whether it could withstand any attempt to move it, possibly to
a public viewing tank at Canakkale, close to Gallipoli.

This would entail a complex exercise to raise it, using a series
of slings attached to surface boats. And the cost could be $10
million to $20 million. Maybe more. The submarine would need to be
kept in a saline bath, possibly for many years. But it would be
viewable by the thousands of Australians who visit Gallipoli each
year.

The Turks are keen. A memorandum of understanding between Turkey
and Australia, signed in 2002, suggests the Turkish Ministry of
Culture could provide the viewing pool near Canakkale. Revenue from
an admission fee would pay for maintenance. There is no suggestion
the submarine be brought back to Australia. Canberra has made it
clear that if the submarine is raised, or moved, it has no claim on
it.

A conference in Turkey next April by the commemorative
foundation and the Turkish Institute of Naval Archaeology will
analyse the results of the drop camera work and the data gathered
by the team to make recommendations to both governments.

The centenary of Gallipoli is just eight years away.
Preservation of the last tangible relic of Australia's Gallipoli
presence would be a fitting way to commemorate that.

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Probably changed history &#133; the AE2 at Garden Island in 1914.
It now lies on the seabed near Turkey.